The lessons science and pharmacology teach us about
achieving optimal health, vitality and maximal lifespan with a low net carb, high saturated fat, evolutionarily paleolithic-styled diet aligned with my ancestral heritage and how I lost 50 pounds of body fat. A sorta fairy story.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Growing up eating Peking duck as a special weekly treat which required ordering 24hrs in advance, our family treasures the soft, fluffy (wheat, non-paleo) bread-pillows that are used to envelope rich roasted duck accompanied by sweet plumy hoisin sauce and a hit of brightness from thinly sliced long scallions. The best duck were the ones with juicy, moist meat and a crispy, crunchy skin. My sisters and I would sometimes eat the brains from the duckhead which came with the whole roasted duck. We're Chinese, e.g. we eat everything. Head-to-toes *winky*.

Marrow, meat... feet.

Visiting Momofuku restaurant in New York is a great Paleo treat. I don't think the owner David Chang intended to have a phenomenal paleo-type restaurant but indeed that is what it kinda is. Fatty meat, pig pig pig galore and the most delicious awesome variety of fusion (Korean, Chinese, Japanese, etc). I've only been there once with my little bro but I am looking forward again when I go back and he gives me a bionic tooth implant/crown (being a 4th yr Columbia dental stud). Waiting in line at Momofuku (translation Japanese: 'lucky peach') is not paleo *haa* IMHO but hey it is worth the price of unforgettable FOOD. Chang's cookbook is a FANTASTIC, engrossing read. If it were not for an unprecedented failure, he would not have adapted in the micro-niche of restauranting and evolved Momofuku's, one of the best, most heralded restaurants in NYC, the city of fast live-die-restaurant cycles. He is a cardinal survivalist and evolutionist. I admire those with the skills to identify what is not working and to tweak and adjust for things to work. His restaurant also applies the liberal use of LARD, pork fat. The pork belly recipe recycles food, like all good chefs. The rendered protein and fats are collected after the roasting which is gelatinous and similar to aspic (YUM) and used in other Momofuku dishes and to flavor soups.

David Chang's Momofuku book was a Xmas gift to my foodie brother (which THANK YOU U.P.S. arrived afternoon of Xmas Eve, delivered as I was walking to my car by a haaawwt U.P.S. male driver, why r they all so uniformly ridiculously ROCKN-in-shorts???! Job prerequisite?).

My bro's rendition ...(sorry, picture pending my download skills which are non-existent). YUMM. Hard to screw up. Easy to eat. Effort: NONE. His 3 lb-roast served 6 adults and 2 kids for TWO MEALS. Paleo-thrifty in these economic times. Completed one of our best Christmas dinners!

Value: ImmeasurableCost: Sacramento local asian meat market, pork belly $1.70 per lb(anatomically, belly is the same as bacon, see below)

CHOLESTEROL IS A NATURAL SUBSTANCE your body produces for a variety of uses. It is carried through the body in three containers -- LDL, HDL, and VLDL -- that deliver it to cells along with triglycerides. The average man reasons that the cholesterol in his scrambled eggs must surely end up in his arteries somehow, and this makes him do things like order egg-white omelets for breakfast. There is indeed a link between the cholesterol you eat and the cholesterol in your arteries.

It's just not the "eat more, have more" worry that's been drummed into you for years. In fact, your body's production and uptake of cholesterol is highly regulated; eat a six-egg omelet and your body simply produces less cholesterol because of the dietary onslaught.

"There is a very weak connection between the LDL cholesterol we measure and dietary cholesterol," Dr. Krauss says. "I spend a lot of time talking to reporters and trying to explain that dietary cholesterol is not the same as blood cholesterol." He adds that the 200 milligrams of cholesterol most people eat every day is NOTHING compared with the 800 milligrams their bodies produce [my EMPHASIS].

But you don't have to take his word for it. "It is now acknowledged that the original studies purporting to show a linear relation between cholesterol intake and coronary heart disease may have contained fundamental study design flaws," wrote the author of a recent review in the International Journal of Clinical Practice. [HERE. Jones PJ citing Hu et al]

The author suggests to lower small dense LDL, the actual heart disease culprit:

Targeting the Killer LDLSmall changes, fewer small particles

"Small, dense particles of LDL are much more inflammatory than larger particles," says Paul Ziajka, M.D., Ph.D., a clinical lipidologist with the Southeast Lipid Association. Here's how to snuff the little devils.

Crack an eggDown an omelet every morning and you may lower your small-particle count, University of Connecticut researchers recently found. People who ate three whole eggs a day for 12 weeks dropped their small-LDL levels by an average of 18 percent.

Pop some niacin"Most drugs shift particle size after the cholesterol is made," Dr. Ziajka says. "Niacin causes the liver to produce larger particles." Try a no-flush variety (Dr. Ziajka recommends Slo-Niacin) starting with 500 milligrams a day and building to 2,000. There are side effects, so talk to your doctor first. [Note: no-flush doesn't work; slo-niacin is a lower-flush type of niacin]

Lighten your loadDeflating your spare tire may reduce your small, dense LDL cholesterol, say scientists at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute. The majority of overweight men who were pattern B (mostly small LDL) switched to pattern A (mostly large LDL) after they lost an average of 19 pounds.

Have a glassThat nightly beer does more than relax you -- it may also lower your small, dense LDL, a recent Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism study found. Men who drank 7 to 13 alcoholic drinks a week had 20 percent fewer small-LDL particles than men who didn't drink at all. [Note: beer aint paleo]

I've wondered about this dichotomy -- can humans and other mammals have both sex and longevity? Nick Lane, author of Life Ascending, gives his deep, refined thoughts on this apparent contrast. 'The idea of a trade-off between sex and longevity was laid out by the British gerontologist Tom Kirkwood pictured exactly such a 'choice', on the economic grounds that ENERGY is limited and everything has a cost. The energetic cost of bodily maintenance must be subtracted from the energetic cost of sex, and organisms that try to do both simultaneously will fare less well than organisms that apportion their resources...'

This change that occurred in evolution when mammals internalized pregnancy and increased child-rearing from a few weeks to a few years may explain how the priorities in energetics shifted. It reminds me of other predators... bears, wolves and coyotes. Just like them, we invest a great deal of resources into teaching, reinforcing, enrolling into chest club, swimming lessons, golf camp, piano lessons and other preparations necessary for optimal success in life. Actually we invest VERY LITTLE in sex but MUCH MUCHO MORE in maintenance phases. The higher up the supposed predator food chain, the balance is FAR shifted toward maintenance phases, less sex. Nick Lane's theory is that 'In all cases, though, there is a choice, and in animals that choice is normally controlled by the insulin hormones.'

Behavioral budgeting by wild coyotes: The influence of food resources

Coyotes and wolves are quintessential survivors and clever companions. Dogs are pretty close. My daughter is reading a wonderful series called 'Wolf Brother' by Michelle Paver.

Coyote populations display a very curious 'negative relationship between coyote abundance and population growth' as these authors noted. Though increased litter size occurs with food abundance, 'There was also a hint that mean litter size may be correlated with food conditions under which females are reared, as opposed to conditions leading up to specific reproductive seasons (Knowlton and Stoddart 1983).'

Energy balance of the female of the species explains a lot. Certainly gender-specific nutrigenomics play a role. We are definitely more sensitive to the insulin resistant, pro-inflammatory effects of glucocorticoids and n-6 PUFAs than our male counterparts. Vitamin D (e.g. duration photoperiods), probably as well, esp if you believe the female-forager theories and division of labor.

Energy Balance: Relates to Priorities in Mammalian Physiological Functions (SEX v. maintenance v. decreased population growth)
Bronson describes energy balance affecting reproduction in all animals. If the priority is survival and forwarding genetic material to the next generation, this all makes incredible and wonderful sense. Everything appears clear in light of evolution.

Recently, I started bikram yoga and... oh boy. It's H-O-T. One hundred four degrees F to be precise, in 40% humidity which grows during the 90min sessions. Skin is a big excretory organ (bigger than the KIDNEYS... *wink*). Sweating is a stellar way to detox whether it is during exercise or in a sauna -- the Japanese and Korean spend a lot of time in sauna-like hot baths; the Greeks luxuriate in hot mineral baths. After the class starts, within 5-10min every person in the room is dripping bodily fluids. Every sweat gland gets a workout. Even. My belly button's. In fact, it's gross but I discovered my knees SWEAT too.

Under My Skin: Subcutaneous Fat

Subcutaneous fat stores are anatomically located under the skin. Pinch an inch or grab a slab? (after holidays, the later for me) The quantity and quality of our storage fat and skin fluxes with the same hormones that affect our muscles.

I've discussed hormesis and how cold showers relate in an earlier post. Being BIONIC. This winter I've enjoyed much less cold showers... which last... OHHHH... ~1.4 seconds long. *haa*

Hot bikram yoga is a much more preferable way for me to achieve hormesis because both cold and heat shock induce mTOR changes.

More Hormesis

Skin is our largest organ (yes, it is). Surface area ~ 27 sq ft (2.5 sq meter) and weighs about 9 lbs. Each square inch contains about 230 ft (70 m) of nerves and 16 ft (~5 m) of blood arteries and veins. More vitamin D synthesis occurs in our skin when we are heated (no sunlight involved, just temperature factors alone). According to the below authors "The skin locally synthesizes significant amounts of sexual hormones with intracrine or paracrine actions. The local level of each sexual steroid depends upon the expression of each of the androgen- and estrogen-synthesizing enzymes in each cell type, with sebaceous glands and sweat glands being the major contributors." I think we can have it both ways... sex/hormones... and quality, disease-minimized lifespans... (1) controlling insulin (2) keeping mitochondria happy. Hormones and hormesis are indeed key players for power, sex and survival.

OMG too hilarious. But great form (and outfits)! Good hip extensions at the top of the box jumps, oooohhHH nice snatches, excellent height and deep bootie squats on those wall balls. WOW CTB (chest-to-bar) pullups which are always my envy... completely full range of motion... esp after exhaustion failure w/wtf wallball-burpees.